St. Landry democrat., 1887-08-20

! in their solitude and Others flee from the
land they have pre- empted as if it were
sown by devils and about to yield drag
| Ons.
The first Journeys ever made among
| pioneers were out past the pretty
village of Wildwood, just beyond the
| Manitoba line, in Assiniboia, Canada.
1t was good vantage point from which
to view pioneer life in all its phases, for
the soil is black with richness $50 black
that where the prairie grass is dug up or
| lifted off you would think the earth had
been soaked in ink, every grade OF
pioneer and every stage in the pioneer
| life is viewable there and near there,
and half the nationalties seem to find
representation among the settlers. With
most of them the straight and level
track and swift trains of the Canadian
| Pacific railway have taken the places of
the primitive schooner and ribbon
like trail of old, but in all after phases l
found that the pioneer life looked upon
was very like that of the men who
began the settlement of the West And
this is the programme and modus
operandi of that life:
The immigrant has either been out
prospecting for good land or he has
allowed settler friend to choose for
him; or, last and least frequently, he has
studied maps, read circulars, drank
in the liquid melody of land agents
talk and bought-a pig in poke. Then
he brings on his family. In these days,
on the Canadian Pacific railroad at all
events, there are what are called ''immi-
grant sleeping cars" They are not a
tenth so bad as the name sounds. They are
very like Pullman sleepers made of plain
wood and not upholstered. On the floor
are broad seats two at a time, back to
back, so that two always face each other
as in any other sleeper. They are
made of ash or oak and vanished.
Over each two seats that face one
another is a shelf-bed that shuts
I'D and forms part of the ceiling.
These shelf-beds are also of plain wood,
kept sweet and clean. The railroad sells
mattresses for something like twenty
five cents each, and pillows at the same
microscopic rate; the immigrant has a
blanket or buys one, and there is his
! outfit, which is better than anything in
the steerage of a steamer-so much better
that found well-to-do persons of saving
minds sleeping in the immigrant cars a.
night and riding in the regular tirstclass
coaches by day rather than spend the
money for sleeping coach accommoda-
tons. l would as lief sleep with some
carloads of English pioneers that
saw, but there were others of other nation
alities whose personal habits and general
atmosphere were such that quite agreed
with the youth from Chicago who said to
me, "Iwould rather walk tirst-class than
ride third-class."
The immigrants carried bread and
canned goods and plates, cups and knives
and forks, and waited ON themselves,
some brewing their own tea and coffee
and others buying it where it could be
had and going without it elsewhere.
When we passed pioneers with can
vas-topped wagons and OK teams the
wonder arose why they should prefer
that long-drawn torture to the speed and
comfort of the cars. The answer was
that the OK teams betokened settlers
moving from one trial ground to another,
or farmers abandoning poor ground in
the East for good land in the West:
Such have the teams and wagons and
loads of goods, and find the trail pref
cradle to the track. Those who take the
cars are mainly from Europe.
Once out on the chosen site for home
the pioneer sets up the tent ne has
brought along to serve for habitation till
he can provide better one. You would be